It scares the health out of me...

From 1987.  In rapt anticipation of the greatly expanded C86 compilation that's coming out in June. 

http://www73.zippyshare.com/v/25411502/file.html

Royal Court of China - Off the Beat'n Path ep (1986, Desperation)

The name Royal Court of China might ring a bell for you fanciers of late '80s hard rock, albeit far from household moniker status.  They made minor ripples with two albums for A&M, but before those came this ep, seeped in no small shortage of Americana tendencies.  In fact, the commencing "The Lottery" possesses a pronounced spaghetti western tact, that's hard to discern whether it's contrived or genuine.  "Take Me Down" follows suit, but by the time ...Beat'n Path's high water mark, "Forget Me Nots" kicks in on side two, RCoC ditch the hick factor almost entirely and settle on something vaguely on the same wavelength as Green On Red.  A Yardbirds rendition closes this affair out.  There are few if any revelations here, but I thought this might be of interest to some of you.  Enjoy (or not).

01. The Lottery
02. Take Me Down
03. I'm Not at Home
04. Forget Me Nots
05. Television Gone
06. Off the Beat'n Path
07. Heart Full of Soul

Hear

Songs For Snakes - Year of the Snake (2014) - A brief overview.

It's that time of year folks.  Warped Tour season is upon us.  I make mention of this, because during the mid-90s inception of said marauding punk carnival, Songs for Snakes would have fit in like a glove amidst the likes of Samiam, fluf, Descendents, etc.  But in case you haven't been paying attention, for the last decade or so Vans' "punk rock summer camp" has evolved into a predictable haven for the screamo and rap/rock hybrid contingents with little regard to the staying power of it's participants.  Once again I digress...

To cut to the chase, most punk-pop aggregations with any integrity left aren't being courted by major labels, nor are they left a trail of crumbs the festival circuit.  Suit yourself, Vans Inc., because here comes album number two from the achingly rugged and melody-ridden Songs for Snakes, a Bay Area trio who wowed me with their 2012 platter, Charcoal Heather.  Still picking up where influential antecedents Jawbreaker, Sugar/Husker Du, and even Mission of Burma left off, the SFS formula hasn't been modified to any great extent on Year of the Snake, though the acoustic strains leading into "I Felt 13" make for a brief respite from the album's overarching, power-chord adherence.  With riveting tuneage like "A Wave That Wants To Be a Sea" and "Painted Lawns" on full-surge display, I'll gladly take the Snakes 'holding pattern,' innovation be damned!  See what I mean by checking things out on their Bandcamp page, where you can buy/stream Year of the Snake digitally, or better yet purchase on gnarly, splatter colored vinyl.  

Brainiac 5 - When Silence Was Sound 1977-80 (2014, Reckless) - A brief overview.

Given the uber-arcane nature of some of the vintage goodies I make available here, it's heartening to learn that every so often one of them gets a bonafide reissue.  Looking back at my hasty 2012 entry for Brainiac 5's lone LP, the posthumous World Inside, it's become apparent that I oversimplified what the Cornwall, UK troupe was all about.  Luckily, the Brainiac's newly minted anthology, When Silence Was Sound, has enlightened me further and should do likewise for you.  The band's late '70s lifespan in itself might suggest quite a bit, but it would take a lot more than your proverbial 140 characters to describe their essence...but I'll try.   Brainiac 5 conveyed a casual mash-up of proto and post-punk, rarely hitting the famous three-chord sweet spot that slotted in between those two realms.  More inspired than incendiary, the quartet might be one of the only bands of their era that weren't deliberately trying to sound like a product of it.  Their brief discography hinted at the likes of the Velvets, Cleveland punk, Tom Verlaine and Nuggets, coupled with a low-to-mid fi sonic penchant, tinting just about everything in sight with a grainy mystique. 

When Silence Was Sound reprises all of World Inside's ten selections, though some appear in slightly altered versions.  An additional seven songs are added, culled from singles, demos, and even a 1980 concert which would prove to be their last.  Intentional or not, the Brainiacs were surprisingly long on diversity.  The few articles I've read on them emphasize their psych proclivities, but aside from the slow-burning fuse that is "Endless River," and the Barrett-esque "Woman Inside" their modus operandi was more contemporary.  In fact, "I Tried" was as forward thinking as anything their colleagues were brewing up.  "Time" embraces a contemplative and practically ethereal finesse, the yin to the yang of the boisterous rocker "Addicted," which plays out like Swindle -era Pistols.  "Waiting for the Woman" kicks up a Pere Ubu-like racket, while the lengthy and loopy "Feel" vaguely foreshadows what fellow Brits the Monochrome Set would have in mind shortly after Brainiac 5 hung up their collective hat.  In a nutshell, When Silence is a disparate but delightful patchwork.

As luck would have it the band reunited in 2012-13 for some reunion shows, and were even buoyed enough to commit some unrecorded material to tape for a new 10" ep (in extremely limited quantities I might add).  Colin Hill lays out the entire Brainiac 5 saga in Silence's detailed liner notes, up to and including the reunion.  Hard copy CDs can be obtained through Amazon. and you can stream it on Bandcamp,

By will alone we set our minds in motion.

From 2003.  Last week, this band performed this very album in it's entirety...only out of order and acoustic...but not entirely.  Anyway, you can check out the original version here.

http://www65.zippyshare.com/v/530660/file.html

Convictions "Last Appeal #7" (1984, Third Rail)

I won't be telling you much about the Convictions, a quintet ostensibly from San Francisco, as there isn't a shred of relevant info to be had online.  Instead, I'd be better off speaking to their songs, especially the A-side of this wax, "Last Appeal #7," a rugged pop-rocker with socially conscious sentiments that doesn't get too heavy handed.  Pretty solid hook here, and by and large, the Convictions might have been a good fit for their now defunct hometown label 415 Records.  The flip "Why Won't You?" mines a demonstrably more rootsy vein, laden with patent bar-rock vibes.  From my end there's no telling if this was the band's only vinyl offering.

A. Last Appeal #7
B. Why Won't You?

Hear

The Flies - Alternatoid (1995, Too Many)

I've been on something of a punk rock tear this week, and I thought this would be an apropos follow-up to the Tantrum comp I unfurled the other night.  Not to be confused with the completely unrelated 1980's Flies, whose Homestead Records album was posted a few years back, these Flies took to orbit in the mid-90s in the vicinity of Spokane, WA.  With a score of dizzying, two minutes salvos, the Flies speedster thrust bore an unmistakable resemblance to contemporaries Scared of Chaka.  And as with the case of SoC, the Flies seemed to be taking a page from the Dickies as Alternatoid conveys a pronounced sardonic bent, albeit this trio isn't nearly as melodic.  Still pretty intoxicating nonetheless. 

01. Midnight Soldier
02. Paingiver
03. House Fire
04. Austrian
05. Dum Dum Fever
06. Pine River Park
07. Challenger
08. Queen's Parade
09. Apartment 302
10. Pussy
11. Tramps
12. Baby Jane
13. Green Flares
14. Sweet as Candy
15. He's Alive
16. Das Burns
17. Teabag
18. Let's Kill Kenneth
19. Hammer Throw
20. Mimi

Hear

V/A - Tantrum (1990, Cocktail)

I'm damn-near downright surprised that no other sites have put this one on the table.  Perhaps Tantrum's schizoid album jacket scared some folks off, but personally I regard it as something of an asset.  This eighteen song platter is way more Flipside than Maximum Rock N Roll, and I wouldn't have done it the other way around in a million years.  Though it's emphasis was local (L.A. and surrounding environs) Tantrum strangely epitomized where the whole alt/punk/grunge thing was headed, not long before Nirvana would push that whole ball of wax kicking and screaming into the pop stratosphere.

The proceedings here aren't exclusively balls-to-the-wall punk, but if that was the draw there are some seriously hot practitioners in attendance, specifically White Flag, Wreckage, the Instigators, and Artistic Decline, not to mention like-minded acts of the female persuasion including Frightwig and the ever popular L7 who offer the instant classic, "Bite the Wax Tadpole." I Love You, who I've enthusiastically endorsed on the pages, are present with an early incarnation of a song that would later materialize on their first album, in all it's fuzzy, wha-wah'ed glory.  Pat Ruthenmmear and his Death Folk will kill two glorious minutes for you, Spiderbaby weave a chiming and chilly goth-punk tapestry in the guise of "Wake Up," while the Groovie Ghoulies update a certain Men Without Hats standard.  And if there was any band on Tantrum that perfectly dovetailed with the aforementioned record sleeve (in all it's glorious, bonkers abandon) the award would certainly go to Celebrity Skin, whose "Radiation Man" is about as avant as most of you would ever care to get.

01. Ultra Violet Eye - Bohemian Weight
02. I Love You - Jesus
03. Celebrity Skin - Ratt Fink
04. Haunted Garage - My Disciple
05. L7 - Bite the Wax Tadpole
06. White Flag - Zero Hour
07. Instigators - The Blood Is On Your Hands
08. Frightwig - 38 Special
09. Wreckage - Weird Woman
10. Celebrity Skin - Radiation Man
11. Pigmy Love Circus - Broken Lady
12. Christy McCool - Neal's Deal With Meals
13. The Death Folk - Jack
14. Groovie Ghoulies - Pop Goes the World
15. Spiderbaby - Wake Up
16. The Rails - Miss Rome Stays Home
17. Tony Gilkyson - Wedding Day
18. Artistic Decline - Will I Ever Learn

Hear

Speech be my shovel, dig to see what's in her eyes.

The stellar 1988 debut from a D.C. outfit who were responsible for some of the most creative, melodic pop-punk ever.  Also included is the contents of an earlier ep. 

http://www55.zippyshare.com/v/20344072/file.html

Let's Active - Every Dog Has it's Demos (1987)

Pretty straightforward here.  A collection of demos recorded by Mitch and Co. in anticipation of their 1988 parting shot, Every Dog Has It's Day.  As many fans would concur, it's not Let's Active's finest hour, but ironically, it's the album that introduced me to them.  I used to live in a small city in upstate New York, that just so happened to be home to an MCA records factory/distribution center.  L/A were on IRS, a subsidiary of MCA. Somehow, cassette cutouts/overruns of certain titles found their way into local five and dimes, thrift stores and the like.  I happened upon a sealed copy of Every Dog for half a buck at a McCrorys, but wasn't really big on the band until I investigated Afoot, Cypress, etc...

Among several songs here that would make the final cut for Every Dog, there's some surprisingly strong material that didn't including "You're a Comet," "I Wonder" and "All Roads Lead to Hell." While they don't consistently mesh with Let's Active janglier aesthetic of yore, they don't fail to impress either.  When it comes to Mitch, one rarely goes wrong.  Enjoy.

Reflection Studios, Apr 1987
01. 40 Years
02. Too Bad (#1)
03. Ten Layers Down
04. I Wonder
05. Sights Set On Heaven
06. You're a Comet
07. Shelter (by the Alarm?) snippit

Reflection or Drive-In Studios Apr-May '87
08. Too Bad
09. Night Train
10. 40 Years (#2)
11. Sweepstakes Winner
12. Sights Set On Heaven (#2)
13. Ten Layers Down
14. She Loves the T.V.
15. I Wonder (#2)
16. Terminate
17. You're a Comet
18. I Feel Funny

June '87
19. All Roads Lead to Hell (drum machine version)
20. untitled inst.
21. Too Bad (#3)
22. Night Train (#2)

Hear

Spaghetti Western - s/t (1986, Epitaph)

With a name like Spaghetti Western it has to be twangy...right?  Amazingly, you won't find a speck of cowpunk bravado anywhere on what appears to be the Western's lone platter.  The C&W attributes that occasionally crop on Spaghetti Western are relatively tame - as is the overarching modus operandi of the Jon Bertini-fronted trio itself.  Skewing more in the direction of the first two Marshall Crenshaw records (and even more sparingly along the lines of the Rain Parade and Grapes of Wrath) than anything else, SW's homey Americana bent is to their advantage, not their detriment.  And the real kicker?  This thing came out on Epitaph Records of all labels!  Heck, Bad Religion guitarist/main man Brett Gurewitz even co-produced the friggin' record, just a couple years before Suffer would set the world afire for Christsakes!  Doesn't get much more unlikely than that folks.  Another blog did a nice piece on this record, offering a decent backgrounder from what I recall, but it has apparently been stricken from the internet.  I hope I did this justice.

01. What Are Friends For
02. Nothing Ever Changes
03. Oughta Be a Law
04. Don't Write Me
05. Idle Minds
06. No Memories
07. Man in the Mirror
08. There Used to Be a Building
09. Goin' All the Way
10. Easy Come, Easy Go
11. Lonely One
12. Don't Go

Hear

She said some foolish things last night...

Cozy but artful FM-radio pop from 1982, with it's fair share of new-wavish tweaks.  Only learned of them two years ago and have been hooked ever since.

http://www23.zippyshare.com/v/20099368/file.html

Blue Movie - Hearts in Clubs (1986, Good Foot)

First encountered Blue Movie by way of The View From Here compilation and really didn't give them a second thought until I found their debut (this album) in a really swell dollar bin a few weeks ago.  This San Francisco treat was a trio by all accounts, and had an ear for what was going on at the time without getting too subterranean.  You might hear strains of period R.E.M. on "Trouble in the Yard" and "Reading D.C."  "Mary and Riley" follows the band's bluegrass muse, while a notably more measured guitar-pop motif occupies "Quiet Conversations" and "Single Earring," foreshadowing what Toad the Wet Sprocket and Gin Blossoms would deliver to the masses in a few years time.  Hearts in Clubs peaks at the start of side two, with the jangly and propulsive title cut.  Good record, so just download it already.  Eat your peas.

01. When Colors Run
02. Reading D.C.
03. Mary and Riley
04. Quite Conversations
05. Johnny and I
06. Hearts in Clubs
07. Single Earring
08. Trouble in the Yard
09. Kathleen
10. Slum Goddess

Hear

The Rocking Shapes "Getting Through You" 7" (1984, Homewrecords)

Relatively linear, but satisfying indie guitar rock, presumably from Lafayette, LA.  Some really nice, ringing axe leads, courtesy of Tom Conover, on both of these roughewn nuggets that would have slotted in well with early Windbreakers and the Libertines (US).  Just the thing for all you left of(f) the dial types who pine for the golden age of college radio.  Perhaps more to follow from the Rocking Shapes... 

A. Getting Through You
B. Cracked Marbles

Hear

The Stems - 1984-1987 - under review

Update 5/1/14:  I've just learned that plenty of copies of the Stems book are still available direct from High Voltage Publishing. 

I think this is only the second book review I've offered on Wilfully Obscure, so here goes.  In the '80s, there were more than a few decent garage/psych revivalists to emanate from the land down under.  For my money, two that really stood out were the Lime Spiders and The Stems.  While the Spiders' collective legs seemed to web their way around the world for their proverbial fifteen minutes, the geographic challenge was more daunting for Perth's Stems, whom I don't believe made any inroads in North America save for a cut on the Young Einstein soundtrack (embarrassing times, I know).  Yet the Stems, helmed by demigod-in-the-making Dom Mariani, were responsible for some of the most pristine and quintessentially definitive garage rock songs ever produced from that era, deliberately retro as they may have been.  You see, while the Lime Spiders resided on the trashy, punk side of the continuum, Mariani and Co, were steeped in all things beat, Mersey and mod.

George Matzkov's The Stems1984-87, is a primo keepsake of dozens of professional quality black and white photos of the band snapped at all phases of their tenure.  But why a pictorial anthology of this band, who had a predominantly regional following?  Much like opting to scale Mount Everest, "Because it's there."  In the case of Matzkov, the photos - hundreds of them perhaps, were "there," languishing in shoeboxes, and warranted a larger audience.  1984-87 charts the Stems evolution from mop-topped coiffed rascals to modestly more contemporary looking young-adults by books end.  The Stems farfisa-laden tunes, while impeccably performed, weren't particularly serious or weighty.  To the contrary, the pictures consistently reveal the quartet in an almost unflinchingly austere and distinguished demeanor.  The Dead Milkmen and Oingo Boingo should have been so lucky as to have had Matzkov document their respective trajectories, but I digress.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a second pressing of this slim but impressive visual dossier.

Accompanying the book is a CD of live Stems material, culled from multiple concerts, some of which were heavy on covers, and fitting ones at that - The Stones, Count V, Easybeats, Blues Magoos, and even the Plimsouls all get the Stems makeover.  In the link below, I've set you up with two tracks from the disk, plus a pair of Stems classic studio sides, that were anthologized on Citadel Records Buds anthology.  You'll also be treated to one song apiece from Dom Mariani's excellent power pop act The Someloves (who ran concurrently with the Stems) and his even more prolific '90s outfit, DM3.  I've even tossed in a few page spreads of the book to whet your appetite.  The Stems 1984-87 is available from High Voltage books in Australia. 

Tracks:

The Stems
Tears Me in Two
Rosebud
Psychotic Reaction (live)
Zero Hour (live)

Someloves - Back on Side With You
DM3 - 1x2x Devastated

Hear

Crocodile Shop - Head ep (1987, Susstones)

Crocodile Shop underwent an unbelievable and IMO, unfortunate metamorphosis not long after this extremely promising ep was released.  A brief synopsis can be read on their Wiki page, but I prefer to speak only to their Head ep, issued on the Minneapolis-based Susstones Records.   Head's five numbers were a synthesis of what Game Theory and Let's Active had served up just a few years beforehand, albeit Crocodile Shop slightly retooled that winsome formula with a tad more aggression.  In fact, this (mostly) excellent disk could've easily passed for a Mitch Easter production.  For the record, the band later disavowed it.  I should add the last two songs, "Think of Things" and "Eyes Getting Louder," merge right into each other.  I did my best at editing the transition, strictly by personal estimation.  Hope you like.

01. April Reigns
02. Superheroes
03. Along For the Ride
04. Think of Things
05. Eyes Getting Louder

Hear

Springtide will lift me, take me across...

Should've been huge.  Reissue of 1986 classic with six bonus tracks. 

http://www61.zippyshare.com/v/99609318/file.html

The Bon Mots - Best Revenge (2013) - A brief overview

My primary grievance with Chicago's Bon Mots is the sheer infrequency of their albums (only three in the past ten years), but luckily, when they finally get around to laying down some new compositions they make it count.  Best Revenge is their first since 2008's Forty Days and Forty Nights With the Bon Mots, and the warm, lived-in tenor of that sophomore disk manifests itself even more effortlessly here.  You can attribute much of that urbane penchant to the Mot's songwriting duo of Eric Chial and Mike Coy, whose harmonies would be taking on trademark status in a more perfect world. 

Boasting an array of rich, alluring hooks couched in a vague power-pop subtext, The Bon Mots suggest what Cotton Mather might have conjured up had they been in the same company as Rhett Miller and Ted Leo.  You know that cliched "sweet spot" we've heard so much about over the ages?  Well, not only does it exist, it's actually satiated on multiple occasions on Best Revenge.  "All The Way (Down)" commences things on an assertive note, in di regueur Bon Mots fashion, not over or underplaying anything one iota.  A bit further in, "Galahad" embraces a sprite, bouncy lilt, while the demonstrably looser "Rome's Burning" toys with half a Stones-y lick or two, maneuvering as smoothly as say, The Figgs.  Better yet, the empathetically sobering "All Your Horses" and "Granted" harbor a semblance of uplift, in the manner that Sloan executed so deftly on Twice Removed.  In a nutshell, the Mots nail it for the third LP in a row. 

You can hear (and preferably purchase) all of the aforementioned on Bandcamp, not to mention the Bon Mots brief back catalog.  Best Revenge is available exclusively as a download for the time being, with a physical release to hopefully follow this year.

Tribeca - Incident at the Metropolis (2006, Granada)

Until I have a chance to rip some more wax, I thought I'd share this with you.  A little bit off the beaten path for W/O, Tribeca were a one-LP wonder who made their debut (and to my chagrin) their departure with Incident at the Metropolis in 2006.  Challenging orchestral pop with some downright sublime moments.  Check out my critique for a venerable indie rock publication, contemporary to Incident's release below. 

Tribaca’s debut, Incident at the Metropolis is not only one of the swankiest and most well manicured pop albums to come down the pike in a dog’s age, it’s also one of the most curiously enjoyable as well.  I say “curiously” in the most charitable sense possible, in that an initial listen to pretty much anything here is likely to conjure up instant comparisons to ‘70s/’80s soft-pop.  I suppose it doesn’t help dodging that comparison when you commence your album with a pair of tracks that smack distinctly of Gaucho-era Steely Dan.  There’s no debating it.  The better half of Incident basks in a sheik, cocktail lounge-endowed glow, but with posh arrangements a la orch-popsters The Heavy Blinkers, and some occasional Rundgren-esque inclinations, this L.A. quartet, whom would likely have been passed off as merely “conventional,” say 20 years ago, is anything but – so long as you’re willing to invest the time to let these nine sumptuous songs sink in.  

PS:  I'm also tacking on three demos that were offered on the band's now defunct website.

01. Heuponica
02. North American Laundromat
03. Valuable Feelings
04. Monument Today
05. 2 Days After
06. People Need to Know
07. Start From Nothing
08. Stereo
09. Popular Summer

Hear

Let the speakers crackle and burn...

This week it's a 26-song singles compilation by a Leeds, UK combo who crafted some of the finest post-punk I've ever laid ears on.  Despite what you may have heard, these guys weren't just the province of gloomy goth kids.  It's a damn shame they're still not pumping out records like these, because they'd serve as the optimum antidote to all the genteel indie rock that's been clogging the toilet of late.  Can you tell I'm just a tad jaded?

http://www58.zippyshare.com/v/50836150/file.html

Versus - demos 1990-91

One of the first titles I featured on Wilfully Obscure way back in 2007 was the long out of print, 1993 debut EP by Versus, a New York band whose slightly dissonant yet characteristically tuneful songs embodied all that was endearing about indie rock in the Clinton-era.  I could go on and on, about the sinewy guitar theatrics, pensive lyrics, and mid-fi moxie of Versus' initially volley of singles and full lengths, but I'll spare you.  If you can relate to what I'm attesting to, and you have an affinity for the aforementioned Let's Electrify! and/or their early 45s (compiled on Dead Leaves) then this collection of nascent, and more significantly, unreleased demos is something of a no-brainer.

Ostensibly recorded when the band was still a trio (brothers Richard and Ed Baluyut alongside Fontaine Toups) these sixteen songs zoom in on Versus as they were just settling into what would become their signature sound.  Most of these tracks failed to carry over to any commercial release, and by and large that was a smart decision.  Why?  While this is a decent enough listen (especially from a diehard's perspective) Versus' best work was still a few years in the offing.  Though fleeting, we catch a few glimpses into their halcyon era by way of early versions of "Blade of Grass" and "Reveille."  Per the tracklist below, you'll notice most of the selections are untitled, and unfortunately I'm not privy to what they are, but if anyone sitting at home wants to fill me in, by all means leave a comment.  Enjoy.  BTW, I also shared an ep by Ed Baluyut's pre-Versus outfit, Flower which you can dig into here. 

1 & 2. titles unknown
3. Merucry
4-11. titles unknown
12. Blade of Grass
13. Janet
14. Reveille
15. title unknown
16. I'll Be You

Hear

Geek (Jenny Toomey, pre-Tsunami) - Herasure tape (1988, Simple Machines)

It's pretty safe to say that about 90% of Tsunami fans learned of Geek retroactively, and I stand guilty as anyone.   Tsunami were one of many indie propositions in the '90s that encouraged genuine fandom.  As if three albums (Deep End, The Hearts Tremolo, and Brilliant Mistake) and a copious number of singles and comp tracks weren't enough, some of us were compelled to investigate the back pages of it's architects, not the least of which chanteuse and prime mover Jenny Toomey.  There were no less than three Tsunami precursors that involved Ms. Toomey: Slack, Choke and Geek.  Of this monosyllabic trifecta, the last of that bunch was the most visible, having released a cassette album, Hammer, as part of the 1992 Simple Machine Records Tool series.  Recorded in 1990, that fifteen song tape was an ambitious, but not all-the-way-there endeavor, functioning if anything else as a springboard for Toomey's soaring and throaty timbre.

However, before Hammer came Herasure, yet another cassette-only release, this one dating from 1988.  Equally as DIY as it's follow-up, Herasure benefits from surprisingly better fidelity, creativity, and hook-savvy charm.  The short of it all is that Hammer sounds more like a debut, but all comparisons aside this six song artifact houses some really stunning tunes and bears a sophisticated prowess than it's nascent copyright date might otherwise suggest.  In fact, Toomey coveys some of the most affecting melodies of her career on "Anthem (of Sleeping Mama)" and the unsettling title cut.  Derek Denckla's chiming guitar fills are no slouch either.

Incidentally, I posted a cassette rip of Tsunami's '91 demo, Cow Arcade about three months ago, which is still available here.   

01. guy
02. angel
03. herasure
04. anthem (of sleeping mama)
05. polly breedlove
06. shoelaces

Hear

New Noise - Saint Marie Records first quarter wrap-up: Spotlight Kid, Blackstone Rngrs and more.

In recent years, Fort Worth, TX indie imprint Saint Marie Records has etched out an intoxicating niche for themselves, purveying a bevy of promising dream-pop revisionists.  As it's come about, a spate of fresh releases have bowed in the past four months or so. Thought I'd enlighten you on a few of them.

Spotlight Kid's 2012, sophomore disk Disaster Tourist was a devastating TKO to my eardrums, looming latticeworks of My Bloody Valentine-informed magnificence.  Ten Thousand Hours bellys up to the same woozy watering hole as the aforementioned, but despite no lineup alterations, guitarist Rob McCleary is virtually mum on the mic for this go around, living the brunt of vocal duties up to Katty Heath.  Standout selections "A Minor Character" and "Can't Let Go" exact the same engulfing toll that Disaster Tourist's finest moments did, but SK toss us a curious curve-ball in the guise of "Budge Up," a rereading of Dinosaur Jr's "Budge" boasting partially improvised lyrics.

Next on the list is another co-ed conglomeration, "synthgaze" trio Blackstone Rngrs, who hereby give 'the scene that celebrates itself' one more reason to celebrate via their second ep, Descendant.  BSR garner significant mileage by means of layering their heady sonic quilt, not merely with dizzying washes of tremolo, but beats and chimey guitar hooks.  Aficionados of  such disparate acts as The Drums and Slowdive will find plenty to latch onto amidst Descendant's six alluring grooves.

On the more ambient tip, Children of the Stones is the product of Mark Van Hoen (formally of Seefeel and Locust among others) and Martin Maeers.  Lacing just about every nook and cranny of The Stars and the Silence in a sedate digital glaze, CotS mix things up with glitchy maneuvers and a loose pop subtext that intermittently brings to mind Ultra Vivid Scene, and even more so Steve Kilbey's extracurricular activities outside The Church.  The effect is that of an Rx-strength sedative without the groggy contraindications.  Nice.

By any chance, do any of you remember an early 90's 4AD Records combo by the name of Swallow?  Whether you do or not, that Brit dream pop duo of Mike Mason and Louise Trehy stuck around for only one LP, 1992's ethereal and acclaimed, Cocteau Twins-inspired Blow.  As luck would have it, some two decades on Trehy returns with a fresh-faced band, Strata Florida, who not only pick up where Swallow stalled, but up the ante considerably by doubling down on the guitars and venturing into louder, amped-out vistas.  As if the oodles of gauzy tremolo and feedback swells weren't enough, Strata pitch in some electronic trickery to the robust proceedings.  "By the Way," "Sleeper" and the title track are worth their weight in shoegazing gold.  Many happy returns!

All four of these disks are available direct from Saint Marie, not to mention your physical/digital retailer of choice.  I've provided a few Bandcamp links below so you can try before you buy.

Spotlight Kid
Blackstone Rngrs
Children of the Stones
Strata Florida

The city has no real need to be nervous...

I have a real slammer to share with you this week.  A beguilingly ambitious and sophisticated indie rock platter from 1996 boasting intense, multi-tracked harmonies and arrangements so dense you'd swear at times you were listening to two albums simultaneously.  Incidentally, the title of which is the name of a city I recently drove through, but anyway....

http://www39.zippyshare.com/v/30571768/file.html

1-800-BAND - Diver Blue ep (2014, Almost Ready) - a brief overview

Even those hipster holdouts regarding themselves as too cool for traditional power pop would have to be bananas for resting this Brooklyn quartet.  In fact, how could anyone resist the 1-800-BAND's crisp re-synthesis of the Cars, Cheap Trick and Pointed Sticks, couched in a streamlined, 21st century delivery mechanism?  Not me anyway.  Lots of whirring keyboards all over this one, but the center stage on Diver Blue is occupied by a damn near-addictive stash of hooks.  The title track all but sells itself, and can be experienced on the 1-800's Soundcloud page.  Diver Blue can be had on wax direct from Almost Ready and in ones and zeroes via iTunes, Emusic and Amazon.